Rich In Dollars, Poor In Sanity

by SilverNotes

Moneyed

After the convention, things had gone back to a relative normal.

Between school, homework, and band practice, with hangouts squeezed in where they could, Sunset hadn't gotten much time to herself. Thankfully, in their group, the extroverts only slightly outnumbered the introverts, and so she wasn't alone in needing recharge time. They'd all agreed to take this weekend off to do their own things and meet back up at school on Monday morning, and as Sunset tossed her backpack to one side and collapsed onto her couch, she could feel how much she'd needed to take a little unwind time.

Then she made the mistake of turning on the television.

"From high school nerd to hotshot roboticist, our own local Twilight Sparkle--"

Click.

The words were lost as the TV turned off, and Sunset was left reflecting on the split-second image of cell phone footage of the drone and Twilight's very awkward smiling picture, likely snatched directly off social media as the first thing that came up with a search of her name. Distantly, Sunset noted that it was fortunate that her picture had come up from a search of "Twilight Sparkle," since it'd been impossible to scrub the presence of the other Twilight from the internet entirely after the Fall Formal, but her mind was primarily on other things.

"Welp. There goes my weekend."

Sunset got up and got her coat.

---

Twilight's parents had been kind enough to let her in as soon as she'd shown up at the door. She'd been there enough times that they likely assumed that either a) their daughter had forgotten to inform them of plans, or even forgotten the plans themselves or b) the girls had to go blast things with rainbow lasers. Both were fair assumptions, and neither parent seemed perturbed by option b. Then again, after Twilight had come home with a talking dog, they likely had needed to adapt very quickly.

I wonder what my parents would think...

Sunset tried to shove away the thought as she headed up the stairs. Princess Celestia had informed her that she had made her family aware of where she was, in the broad strokes. The mirror was still a closely-guarded secret, but that their long lost daughter was in another nation, among another species, and had established herself as something of an unofficial ambassador for Equestria...

That reunion would see a lot of yelling, she was sure. But they were apparently proud. They may even still be proud if they knew about the demon incident, if full of questions. That's what happened when magic-focused careers ran in families; what you did and why faded among the questions of how and what could be learned?

Other than the power of friendship, Sunset had mostly learned not to mess with things above her magical weight class. Something she'd tried to pass on after the Friendship Games.

They'd gotten close since then. Sunset had learned to separate her from the other Twilight in her mind very quickly, and make friends with her instead of projecting. Some of the others at school had taken longer, and some of the ones who didn't interact with the girls much still seemed to struggle with it. Flash at least wasn't being awkward about it anymore, which Sunset would take as a win.

She pushed open the door to Twilight's room, and found a bed, computer that was still on, and a suspicious lack of Twilight. Spike sitting on the bed with a comic book, looking completely serene, at least pointed away from kidnapping.

"Uh, where's--?" The words had barely started when Spike wordlessly pointed a paw downward, and Sunset blinked. She then got down to the floor, peered under the bed, and spotted the shine of light off of a set of glasses. "Soooo, I'm guessing you saw the news?"

"What? No! Why?" Sunset had to hurry backward as a frantic purple face emerged from the shadows. "What's on the news? What happened?"

"Hoooow about I help you out from under there first?" Sunset offered her arm, which Twilight obligingly took, and she carefully pulled her classmate out and helped her stand. "And you tell me what's got you so wound up."

Spike carefully flipped a page of his comic. "She's rich and it's freaking her out."

"I..." Twilight finished brushing dust from herself and went to her computer. "I made a few licensing deals with my new patents, and..." She turned the monitor toward Sunset, gesturing at the screen, and she saw the logo of one of the local banks before becoming focused entirely on the numbers.

"That's... a lot of digits."

"I wasn't expecting the royalties to be so much! Or come so fast! I was doing research on how to handle the sudden influx and..." Twilight started to wave her arms around frantically. "I found all these stories about how people would suddenly get wealthy and it would completely ruin their lives."

"Twilight, it's--"

"They'd start being hounded by their own friends and family for the money and jealousy and resentment would tear everything apart! Or they'd try to make everyone happy and eventually all the money would run dry and they'd be left with strained relationships and be broke."

"Twiligh--"

"I just started forming real friendships!" Sunset suddenly found herself yanked forward as Twilight grabbed fistfuls of her shirt. "I can't let this ruin everything!"

"Okay, Twi, breathe." Sunset placed her hands over Twilight's, carefully prying the mangled cloth from her fingers. "This isn't going to ruin anything."

"But how do you know?"

"Because," Sunset said, with a gentleness right out of Princess Celestia's book. "Think about your friends for a second. You remember that one harvest season when Applejack was working after school and every weekend because her brother hurt himself?"

"Yes?" came the confused response.

"You remember how badly we had to twist her arm to let us come over for one weekend and help out a little?"

"...Yes."

"So if she's that bad about letting us give up a couple of days' worth of time to help her, how offended to you think she'd be if you offered her money?"

Twilight blinked at that, seemed to picture it, and then flinched. "You have a point."

Sunset smiled, and guided Twilight over to sit together on the bed. Spike obligingly moved over a bit to give them room. "And you remember Rarity's birthday? She was giving us all these gorgeous handmade outfits all year for ours, and then it took that gargantuan effort to let us give her anything back on hers. Pretty sure if you ever gave her money for anything, she'd pay you back the first chance she got, with interest."

"That's... true." Twilight started to scratch at Spike's ears, and he quietly wagged his tail in response.

"Fluttershy might encourage you to donate some of the money to charities she likes, but only as much as you can comfortably spare. And Pinkie? I think the only thing you'll get from her is a 'Twilight's financially secure' party." She chuckled gesturing at herself. "And me? All I need to do if I need money is go back to Equestria for a little bit. Magically-inert jewels are worth almost nothing over there but plenty here." She patted Twilight on the shoulder. "So see? No risk of your friends going nuts over you suddenly being well-off."

"You're right." She smiled back. "Thanks Sunset. You're good at calming me down when I start going a bit bananas."

"Anytime."

They hugged, and both let out a sigh of relief. Then Twilight froze. "Wait." She pulled back a bit, not ending the hug entirely, but enough that she could see Sunset's face again. "You didn't say anything about Rainbow."

Sunset grimaced, pulling back an arm to rub the back of her neck. "Wellllll..."

"Sunset."

"I mean..."

"Sunset."

Both arms withdrew to hold up her hands defensively. "Okay okay... Well, it's Rainbow, so she'll probably come up with a ton of things for you to buy with your new money and mention it a few... dozen... times." She then lowered her hands again to rest them on Twilight's shoulders. "But it's Rainbow, so she cares a lot more about you than money, and so what will matter most to her is that you're happy with what you do with it."

Twilight sat with that, for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah... that all makes sense." She smiled. "This kind of thing just shows you who your friends really are, and we've already been through enough to know we're real friends, right?"

"Exactly."

They pulled each other in for another hug.

"So, what was that about the news earlier?"

"Um..."

---

There was no surprise when it was Rainbow Dash through the bedroom door first. "We got your texts!"

Applejack strolled through next, pushing Rainbow aside slightly to let her pass. "We got here as soon as we could." She made her way over to the bed, where Twilight was curled in a tight ball, arms over her head. "You doin' okay, sugar?"

"No I'm not okay!" she blurted at enough of a volume to send Applejack jerking back. "I was on the news. As a 'hotshot roboticist.' Why would I be on the news as a hotshot roboticist?"

"Slow week?" Spike offered. "It was the local station. They once did a whole segment on bear sightings without having actual footage of the bears."

"That's what wrong?" Rainbow asked. "But that's awesome. You were on the news."

"Rainbow Dash, really." Rarity huffed as she stepped into the room as well. "This news segment happened without her foreknowledge or involvement. Not once asking for an interview or even a quote. I'd be upset too."

Fluttershy squeezed past Rarity, and came over to sit on the bed as well, next to Applejack. "If you want to lay low for a while, until it all blows over, you can stay at my place."

"That's the problem!" Twilight clutched at her hair like she might pull it out. "I can't!"

"Twilight's afraid we're going to have another magical incident," Sunset filled in from where she stood vigil against an attempt for the girl in question to crawl back under her bed. "And this extra press could lead to unwanted cameras following her right to it."

Rarity hummed at that. "Well, our identities as local superheroes was always something of an open secret, no? Ever since the first... ah..."

"Ever since I blew up the front of the school?" Sunset offered.

"Yes, that." Rarity smiled reassuringly. "Ever since that, our classmates have taken the influx of magic and our involvement in it rather well, all things considered."

Twilight slowly sat up with a groan, waving her arms. "But there's a difference between our classmates being okay with the fact I tore open reality in front of them one time, and the government sending agents to show up on our doorsteps and recruit us for who knows what!"

Spike rolled his eyes. "She's been reading Shining Armour's old comic books."

"So have you!"

"For fun, not as a how-to book."

"We have superpowers, you're a talking dog and it's the only research material I have on the subject!"

"Alrigh', calm it down, Twi." Applejack laid a hand on her shoulder. "There hasn't been any trouble lately, an' if there is, it's okay if you want t' sit one or two adventures out t' keep from drawin' unwanted attention."

Twilight blinked. "It...is?" She looked around at everyone, and their comforting smiles. "You don't think it's selfish of me?"

Rarity shook her head. "You've made it very clear that you're thinking of the wellbeing of all us." She gestured in the air with her hand. "Trust us to handle a few magically-charged ruffians, darling. Things will be fine."

"Thank--"

A buzz cut her off, and everyone turned to Sunset. She reached into her pocket, pulling out her cell phone. "Uh... just got a text from Pinkie." She frowned. "There's something going on at the bakery. Something about... talking sock puppets?"

All five looked at one another, to Twilight.

"Leave it to us." Rainbow grinned. "We've got this."

Comments

[Ri2]

They don't got this.

[OmniFox]

I don't know what's better or worse: The H-money or the sock puppets.

[redandready45]

"They'd start being hounded by their own friends and family for the money and jealousy and resentment would tear everything apart! Or they'd try to make everyone happy and eventually all the money would run dry and they'd be left with strained relationships and be broke."

"Twiligh--"

"I just started forming real friendships!" Sunset suddenly found herself yanked forward as Twilight grabbed fistfuls of her shirt. "I can't let this ruin everything!"

To be fair to Sci-Twi, success and wealth can create deep divisions in close friendships. Being worried about that kind of thing isn't unfounded, as is her fear of her magic being found out by the government.